Louisiana State University LSU Digital Commons Faculty Publications Department of Geography & Anthropology 1-1-2020 Charros: How Mexican Cowboys are Remapping Race and American Identity Andrew Sluyter Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/geoanth_pubs Part of the Anthropology Commons, and the Geography Commons Louisiana State University LSU Digital Commons Faculty Publications LSU Libraries 1-1-2020 Charros: How Mexican Cowboys are Remapping Race and American Identity Andrew Sluyter Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/libraries_pubs Part of the Geography Commons 104 R. Kitchin et al. / Journal of Historical Geography 67 (2020) 91e107 such examinations, yet studies of this form miss marginalized that now places them at the center of Hispanic cultural politics in viewpoints and recreate the narratives of those who held power. the USA. Though outside the immediate scope of the book, a bit of discussion The introductory chapter explicates the origins of charro culture on if and how the positionally of this famous playwright frames his in colonial Mexico. The vaqueros who tended the herds of cattle and representations of an epoch of territory could hint at the existence the land owners they worked for engaged in charreadas that of alternative, co-existing ideas on territory. Do Shakespearean involved equestrian competitions based on the practices used to plays, which Elden notes might not have been written solely by control and roundup cattle. But only after the Mexican revolution Shakespeare, provide an archive on territorial thinking that is of the early twentieth century, in which charros such as Emiliano representative of the time and place of Shakespeare? What other Zapata fought against the dictatorship of Porfirio Díaz, did charro narratives might have existed? culture emerge as a self-conscious movement to glamorize ranch Regardless of these two relatively small points in which some life as one of the major repositories of national identity. Signifi- additional discussion could be informative, this book provides a cantly, the events involved in charreadas contrast with those of unique view into how territory was thought of in Europe during US rodeos that emerged in the nineteenth century as part of a Shakespeare's time. Alongside his two other books on territory, similar process of national identity construction. Although similar Elden has created an extraordinary account of the concept of terri- in many ways, rodeos feature cowboys who compete against each tory. Over the last ten years or so, there has been an uptick of other as individuals in a series of events such as calf roping while focused work on the concept and practice of territory, particularly in charreadas teams of charros compete against other teams. Simi- within critical and feminist geopolitics and within Latin American larly, Anglo cowboys typically wear utilitarian clothes while charros studies. Shakespearean Territories adds to this rethinking of terri- wear embroidered and ornamented pants, short jackets, and wide- tory. Moreover, within the broad discipline of human geography, brimmed hats. Female charras likewise wear short jackets and textual analyses (e.g. maps, cartoons, and political speeches), have wide-brimmed hats but match them with colorful, ankle-length often provided a key source of examination. However, literature skirts. and plays have been a lesser focus. Elden's analysis of Shake- Following that introduction, five chapters present case studies spearean plays not only provides a keen analysis of changing con- of major aspects of charro cultural politics. They range from Los ceptualizations of territory, but also introduces or reminds Angeles, California, across the Southwest to San Antonio, Texas, geographers of the value of literature as a analytical approach. and as far north as Denver, Colorado. They cover the florescence Lastly, as the audience for this book includes scholars and students of charro culture as Hispanic communities, whether settled across of Shakespeare too, this book inserts geographical analyses into dis- the Southwest since Spanish colonial times or more recent immi- ciplines in the humanities. In summary, I highly recommend this grants from Mexico, began wearing the distinctive charro costume book to advanced students and scholars of territory and in patriotic parades in the 1920s to signal their aspirations for an Shakespeare. America inclusive of their ethnic identity. Formal charro associa- tions emerged in the late 1940s as influential mutual aid societies Karen Culcasi that organized a wide variety of community celebrations and char- West Virginia University, USA itable events featuring charro culture, as well overlapping in mem- E-mail address: [email protected]. bership and activities with Hispanic chambers of commerce to promote the development of their neighborhoods. Moreover, char- https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhg.2020.01.003 ros were by then participating alongside cowboys on the rodeo cir- cuit, as well as in their own charreadas. By the 1960s, an independent charreada circuit thrived, with charro teams from across the Southwest and Mexico participating. As charro associa- Charros: How Mexican Cowboys are Remapping Race and Amer- tions proliferated in succeeding decades, they became a force ican Identity, Laura R. Barraclough. University of California within the civil rights movement that helped to elect Hispanic pol- Press, Oakland (2019). 304 pages, US$85.00 hardcover iticians. Throughout that process, charro associations have con- fronted challenges related to access to public space and animal The polarized debate over American national identity between welfare while empowering millions of Americans to nurture trans- advocates for multiculturalism versus those for a homogenous cul- national connections with Mexicans while asserting their element tural core often focuses on issues of Mexican ethnicity and immi- of a multicultural national identity. gration, especially in Southwestern states with large populations One of the greatest challenges involved in countering any ortho- of Hispanic origin. This innovative book by Laura Barraclough, an doxy, of course, involves resisting the urge to create a new one. already accomplished historical geographer of the peoples and pla- Demonstrating that charros are as integral to the multicultural na- ces of California, presents a particularly insightful intervention into tional identity of America as cowboys can result in the elision of that debate. The cowboy of the Western frontier in the nineteenth other diverse actors. Barraclough, for example, relies on an century, after all, has long encapsulated the ideals most fervently outdated literature on the establishment of cattle ranching during espoused by those who define American identity as unified around colonial times that privileges the roles of Europeans. The latest Anglo ethnicity, whiteness, and individualism. Barraclough's scholarship, in contrast, demonstrates that some of the key ele- research challenges that view with meticulous interpretation of ments of both cowboy and charro culture have African roots. Roping primary documents to reveal a different type of cowboy, the charro, cattle from horseback, for example, emerged among enslaved equally as present as the stereotypical cowboy during the emer- vaqueros of African origin in seventeenth-century Mexico before gence of the US West but associated with Hispanic rather than becoming an iconic practice among both charros and cowboys Anglo ethnicity. While marginalized during the nineteenth and over the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Such acknowledge- early twentieth century, charro institutions in the Southwest e ment of the diverse origins of much of both cowboy and charro cul- charreadas, for example, in which teams of charros compete in ture in no way weakens the central contribution of this book, equestrian events e have more recently undergone a renaissance though. Rather, it unlocks opportunities for the study of relations between charro associations and such African American groups as R. Kitchin et al. / Journal of Historical Geography 67 (2020) 91e107 105 the Compton Cowboys of California and the Trail Riders of luxury good and certainly not essential for survival. Yet a survey Louisiana. of the Ming dynasty (1368e1644), which has the most complete re- cords of foreign embassies of all the early dynasties, indicates that Andrew Sluyter nearly every single one of the foreign envoys to China requested Louisiana State University, USA and received gifts of silk and was allowed to trade for silk as well. E-mail address: [email protected]. No other product comes as close in the lists of gifts to foreigners. Removal of ‘silk’ from its pedestal as an important product in https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhg.2019.12.006 Eurasian interactions may not be necessary. There are always quibbles about coverage in a book. It is, in this case, surprising that Rabban Sauma, the first attested voyager from China to reach Europe is not mentioned, especially since he traveled Silk Roads: Peoples, Cultures, Landscapes, Susan Whitfield (Ed.). during one of the heights of the Silk Roads trade and since Marco University of California Press, Berkeley (2019). 480 pages, Polo, a contemporaneous traveler, is repeatedly cited. Another US$65.00 hardcover omission is Johan Elverskog's book Buddhism and Islam on the Silk Road (2010), which offers a comprehensive view of religions along Here is a lovely coffee table